"So, listen to what happened. I followed the narrower path behind the huge cypress and climbed the slope beyond, making my way among the huge boulders until at last I came out on the mountainside above. From there the road passed through some woods and continued endlessly through fields of deep grass.

"Before I knew it I had crossed the first mountain and was approaching the second. All around me was a broad prairie. It turned out that this path was wider and more gently sloping than the main road I had been following before.

"For the most part the path I was following now ran parallel to the main road I had been on earlier. One road passed east of the mountain in front of me and the other road passed to the west. In any case, the road I was on was wide enough to have accommodated a daimyo's procession.